On March 31, 2009, the Special Olympics held their very first annual Spread the Word to End the Word National Awareness Day.
Across the country, adults and students pledged to stop using the word “retarded” or any form of the R-word in their daily vocabulary.
Since 2009, the National Spread the Word to End the Word Campaign Day has been officially changed to March 6 of every year. The r-word first originated as a medical phrase, “mental retardation,” from the mid-1890s which was synonymous for slow or delayed.
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